'Deadpool 2' has even more crude jokes and graphic violence than the original, and is a worthy follow-up

There are even more crude jokes in this one, and thanks to the director of “John Wick” taking over, the fight scenes are even more insane.

There certainly is a lot of pressure put on the sequel to the 2016 box-office hit, “Deadpool.”

It doesn’t just have to perform as well (or better) at the box office than the original ($US783 million worldwide) to be deemed a success in Hollywood. It also needs to be even more crude and violent to appease the fan base.

Time will tell if the box-office coin will flow into the movie’s studio, 20th Century Fox, like it did two years ago, but I can certainly tell you “Deadpool 2” (opening Friday) is as entertainingly distasteful (perhaps even more) than the first movie.

Ryan Reynolds returns as Marvel’s most gonzo superhero, Deadpool. The Merc with a Mouth has been busy since the first movie ended, travelling the globe doing some ultra-violent killer-for-hire work. But after a major death in the first 10 minutes of the movie, Deadpool goes into a funk and does something drastic: he considers becoming an official member of the X-Men.

Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) are back to help Deadpool go on the straight and narrow by becoming an X-Men “trainee” (he sports a yellow “trainee” jersey and everything). But Deadpool can’t help but go rogue on the whole good guy rehabilitation when he encounters the troubled mutant Russell (Julian Dennison).

Going rogue on the X-Men lands Deadpool in a prison for mutants with Russell and that’s when the movie really takes off.

Up to this point, there’s a great “Logan” joke, a hilarious opened credits sequence, some funny X-Men jokes, and top-notch fight sequences (David Leitch of “John Wick” and “Atomic Blonde” fame is the director, taking the reins from the original movie’s director Tim Miller). Things are going the usual path of a sequel: reacquainting the audience with the lead character and setting the plot.

20th Century FoxCable (Josh Brolin) gives ‘Deadpool 2’ a needed jolt.

But once Cable enters the story things get good.

The action picks up and becomes extremely violent. The jokes and inside-baseball jokes – crafted by screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, as well as Reynolds, who gets a screenwriting credit this time – really kick into high gear. And with Russell becoming the character in the story that Deadpool and Cable are seeking out (for very different reasons), we move away from the typical sequel traits.

Josh Brolin jumps from voicing Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War” to starring in the next box-office hit of the summer as the time-travelling tough guy Cable. He is the perfect straight man to Reynolds’ outlandish Deadpool.

And Deadpool’s creation of X-Force is one of the most entertaining parts of the whole movie. It is full of surprises and incredibly funny. This is the part of the movie that has the most spoilers, so see this movie before social media ruins it.

As a whole, “Deadpool 2” is a very strong sequel. I may have liked the first movie a little bit more, but it’s so hair thin that when I see the sequel again, I may be completely sold that I like it more than the original. And surprisingly, this movie has a lot of heart. By the end you may even get a little choked up (I’m serious).

Reynolds owns this character and there’s certainly enough with the additions of Brolin and Zazie Beetz as Domino that a third movie could be worth exploring.

And be sure not to leave the theatre when the credits start rolling. There’s a scene a third of the way into the credits that’s (I’m serious here) the best credits/post credits footage I’ve ever seen in a superhero movie.